Green Tip

In this award-winning column, Foodservice Equipment & Supplies looks at best practices, case studies and more on how to take the best ideas in green building and operations and apply it to your foodservice operation.

This month, FE&S examines two Northeastern hospitals with foodservice programs managed by Unidine Corp., which continues to take steps toward enhancing sustainability programs at these and other healthcare facilities.

It’s easy to take an ice machine for granted. The unit sits in the corner and turns water into ice. What really changes with these machines? Well, lots. Manufacturers continue to produce more sophisticated units that not only make more ice but also do it more efficiently than previous generations. To help give us a better idea of the frozen landscape that is ice machine efficiency, we caught up with Denis Livchak, energy research engineer at the Food Service Technology Center (FSTC) in San Ramon, Calif. Here Livchak sheds light on the top news and technologies in the continued greening of ice machines.

Years after the first push for sustainability hit the foodservice and hospitality industry, operators are seeing a real return on their initial investments and some maturing philosophies about what it means to be green.

In theory, waste management seems like a pretty simple concept in the foodservice industry: make the most effective and efficient use of ingredients, labor and other resources to minimize what the operation tosses in the trash. What could be easier, right?

Sometimes it pays to invest in green. Take, for example, Reed College, which received a gold certificate in the City of Portland's Sustainability at Work program. Reed received the program's highest honor, in recognition of the college's energy-saving, waste-saving and local food-sourcing initiatives.

Purchasing energy-efficient equipment is a significant investment. Equipment maintenance along with operator training to avoid misuse and mistakes are two key steps operators must take to protect upfront costs and maximize return on investment.

Imagine being able to build a completely green restaurant from scratch with a decent budget and endless creative freedom. That's the dream executive chef Justin Johnson was presented with when the 90-bed Watertown Regional Medical Center in Watertown, Wis., decided to completely overhaul its 40-year-old cafeteria and kitchen.